Open archive the new Google Doc and Facebook for faculty

Social networking is an increasingly popular form of communication and sharing of information to peers, friends and family throughout the world. Whether it involves sharing pictures, uploading notes and documents, or even detailing life stories or experiences to one another, everyone is staying connected more than ever before.

Now, faculty and staff are getting in on the “information dissemination” fad, but in a very different way. A new web-based program introduced this fall will allow scholars at UVU to share their work and research with each other.

The Scholars’ Open Archive program will allow the faculty members to post their work on a database they can manage. This database will then be accessible to co-workers as well as be indexed by popular search engines.

“I think it’s going to be seen in a positive light as a centralized, professional-looking site to showcase research, and could be useful for retention, tenure and promotion purposes,” said Library Archivist Catherine McIntyre in a press release.

McIntyre, who is managing the system through the library will also oversee the service along with the rest of the library staff.

Faculty members will still have complete control over what they can post or remove, as well as access to see the number of times that a certain paper or page has been viewed and accessed.

According to McIntyre what makes this program even better is that it is provided free of charge to faculty and staff, and will allow them to upload media formats like PowerPoint and other audiovisual presentations.

The online service, which is being used by more than 60 institutions around the country, includes nearly 160,000 papers in its database. This can be a vital tool for faculty and scholars to use in research, teaching methods, as well as reference guides to clarify certain topics.

While the service may seem flawless, those people in charge and associated with the service realize that there is a lot of work ahead of them in order to help it be successful.

Currently there are only a few dozen individuals from UVU that have created a page to share information. However, McIntyre and her staff are planning a campaign to raise awareness and educate those that are not familiar with the program to learn more about it.